In recent years, the widespread dependence and the proliferation of computers have led to the development of computer networks. Computer networks allow individual PC's as well as large computer systems to communicate with one another independent of their locations. Network interfaces allow computer systems to send and receive data to and from any network the computer system may be connected to. The Internet is another form of a computer network that has become very popular recently, allowing different users and computers to establish communication with one another.
A user commonly accesses the Internet through a software application known as a web browser. A web browser makes a connection through the Internet to other computers systems, and receives information from the web servers that is then displayed on the individual user's work-station. Information displayed to the user is typically organized into pages that are constructed using a specialized language called Hypertext Markup language or HTML.
While HTML is relatively faster to retrieve and display information on individual work-stations and portal interfaces, the task of printing, storing or emailing the retrieved information does not have an adequate solution.
Typically, HTML documents provide links to other documents in order to help the user obtain further information if necessary. When a user accesses a certain page of the document on the internet, the target page often provide “links” to other pages which are related in some respect to the target page and/or the subject matter of the target page. These “links” are often referred to as “hyperlinks” and the context in which they are presented is referred to as “hypertext”. “Hyperlinks” are defined by a word or words, descriptive of the subject matter of the “linked” page and are usually highlighted in some manner to distinguish them over the rest of the text. Hyperlinks can appear in a bold, underscored fashion and/or even in a different color, to allow the user to easily locate them from an otherwise full page of text. A user can then utilize the keyboard or a pointing device such as a mouse, to activate the desired “hyperlink” by placing the cursor at or pointing the mouse to the desired area and activating the “link” by an entering or clicking action.
When searching a particular subject matter, often the first retrieved page only provides the most basic information in a broad manner but other links are provided to retrieve more detailed information. The next “link” level provides more specialized information about the selected topic with other “links” to provide even more detailed information. In this way each “link” level becomes more specialized and more detail oriented. It is not unusual to have to access several links before obtaining a full amount of information necessary about a specific subject matter.
One example is a document that is made up of different sections. The original search retrieves the table of contents, with each section provided as a link. In order for the user to download or print the entire document, each section has to be individually selected, downloading them individually one at a time in sequence and sometimes on a page-by-page basis, each time going through the printing protocol and having to return to the table of contents in order to accomplish the printing or downloading task. This can be a time consuming process, since each time a hyperlink is selected, the entire page will be retrieved including all of the graphics and text and graphics-related parameters specification that is necessary.
In addition to the above problems, the browser printing functionality is unsuitable for printing user portal display content. In portal interfaces, it is common that the display is customized for each computer user based on their specific needs and role within a company. Currently while enacting printing operations, it is not possible to exclude the part of the screen, that is not interesting for the user, e.g. a portal header and a detailed navigation function section. Printing errors frequently occur using the browser printing function, e.g. the output cuffs the content of a page. Additionally, the content may be shown in an unsuitable way, if complex controls like tables or tab strips are used. For example print output may include only the content that is currently shown on the screen. This is not acceptable as users may want to see the whole content of a table or a tab.
The above problems relating to printing documents also are relevant to saving the documents into memory and emailing. In order to save the content of a page e.g. for work reference, the user needs to create a series of screenshots and copy them in a graphical or other appropriate application. In this instance the size of the file may be quite large and the handling of the created document is complicated. For E-Mailing purposes, screen shots need to be copied to a mail client like MS Outlook via a cut and paste operation. The disadvantages of this are that these emails can't be sent directly to a receiver and the E-mail size gets huge very quickly. In order to overcome these obstacles, users need to create zip files or send several E-mails. This again results in cumbersome and time consuming operations for the computer user.
Therefore a fast and convenient way of storing, printing and emailing webpage documents is desired.